How To Kill Analysis Paralysis Once And For All

Stop going From A right back to A in a big ol' circle

Golem

Aug 21, 2021

Analysis paralysis is one of the leading cause of stress, anxiety, and un-productivity in the world.

It usually goes like this:

You want to do something new, exciting, and/or unique.

But... you don't know how to do that thing.

(Obviously.)

So you do some research:

You read books
You read blogs
You watch videos
You take courses

And you do everything in your power to gain knowledge about that subject.

A few days or weeks goes by like this and you're starting to feel like you are really "getting it".

But... you're not quite there yet. You figure you better go learn some more stuff.

So it's back to the research phase...

You read books
You read blogs
You watch videos
You take courses

And you do everything in your power to gain MORE knowledge about that subject.

By now, a few weeks/months have gone by.

And you feel like you've really learned everything that you can learn about this subject.

But now there's a new problem...

YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START.

Do you start where that book told you to start?
Do you start how that video told you to start?
Do you start by following the steps of that course you took?

Round-and-round the wheelhouse of your thoughts go until you're right back where you started.

With no idea what to do and a ton of stress, anxiety, and now guilt about wasting so much time.

It's a vicious cycle right?

If there's one thing that you take away from this article it's this:

Analysis-paralysis is only useful for one thing: NEVER getting anything done.

Throughout my life I have often suffered from the ailment known as “analysis paralysis”.

While it always starts off with good intentions, like wanting to know all of the ins & outs of a new habit or business, or skill, or sport, or whatever, it always ends up the same way…

With me getting so overwhelmed with information and tactics and strategies that I have no idea where to start or where to go and I enviably give up on the subject before ever getting started.

(Raise your hand if you can relate.)

The ironic thing is that we live in a world of abundance.

Abundance of information
Abundance of technology
Abundance of teachers
Abundance of capital
Abundance of knowledge

And yet, because of all this abundance, nobody can get anything done!

There’s always going to be something else that you need to learn…

Some new guru’s teaching to follow
Some new technique that people are swearing by
Some tips or tricks or hacks that will slash the amount of time you need to spend in half

But here’s the thing that nobody talks about…

All of this learning that you are doing so that you can “optimize” your results and really hit the ground running is preventing you from doing the one thing that you need to do above all else...

Which is simply GETTING STARTED!

Pick something, create a list of things that you need to do, then start doing them ONE-AT-A-TIME until you can cross them off and move onto the next task.

Analysis-paralysis is a real thing.

I've missed out on great opportunities because of it and I've wasted months---potentially years of my life because of it.

However there is a quick and immediate cure to analysis-paralysis that we all know deep down in our heart of hearts is the right thing to do.

That thing is to GET STARTED.

You don’t need any more information.
You don’t need any more tips or tricks.
You don’t need any guru’s advice.

What you need to do is GET STARTED.

Here’s how…

Follow the 3:1 rule for getting things done.

Let's say that you have 1 hour to dedicate to doing the thing you've been putting off.

But you don't know where to start or what to do, so you literally need to do research just to learn what the next step is.

Fine.

Do your research.

But for every 15 minutes you put into research, you need to put in 45 minutes of ACTION on that research.

You research something for 1 hour? Great.

Now you need to put in 3 hours worth of work doing that thing before you're allowed to do more research.

By binding your learning into a 3:1 (action:learning) phase, you will effectively KILL analysis paralysis from ever happening in the first place.

“This is stupid & simple, Golem, why should I bother following this plan in the first place?”, you ask.

You should follow this plan because you’ve let yourself fall so far down the rabbit hole from overthinking that you don’t even know which way is up anymore.

It’s time to stop overthinking and start doing!

One of the biggest hold-ups people have about starting a new habit or skill or business or what-have-you, is that they don’t know what to do.

Which bring us to one of the biggest irony’s in life.

So many people don’t start something new because they don’t know what to do…

But you can only know how to do something AFTER you do it.

Before you ever ride a bike, you don't know how to ride a bike.
Before you ever cook scrambled eggs, you don't know how to cook scrambled eggs.
Before you ever deadlifted, you don't know how to do a deadlift.

It doesn’t matter how many books you read, videos you watch, or podcasts you listen to.

You will NEVER know how to do something until AFTER you do it.

So it’s time to stop learning and start doing!

What is one thing that you REALLY want to do?
What is one habit/skill/project that you have been putting off forever?

Pick a habit, skill, or project that you want to do.

It can be writing, it can be starting a business, it can be running, it can be dancing, it can be coding, it can be anything productive!

Pick ANYTHING and JUST DO IT.

Spend a minimum of 1 hour today & 1 hour tomorrow doing that thing.

It doesn't matter if you're bad at it
It doesn't matter if you don't feel like you're ready
It doesn't matter if you don't know what's the best way to start

Just pick something and do it.

The time is going to pass regardless. So why not spend it doing something that may end up changing your life?

Then leave a comment and let me know how it went.

I'm looking forward to hearing back from you.

- BowTiedGolem